Paper Flowers
by Kaslyna
Summary: Sometimes, when it got really bad, she closed her eyes and flew away to a happier time. DRR, MSR, set after the finale, iPod shuffle thingy. Rated 'T' for language, mostly. And 'cause it's really, really dark.


**A/N: I saw this challenge on the In Plain Sight fiction archive, so I'm using the same concept. Shuffle challenge, MSR and DRR. Not submitted, more than 100 words, unbeta'd.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. The X-Files belongs to Chris Carter, Fox, and 1013 Productions.**

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**Slow Down- Jill Hennessy**

It was simple, really. After six years on the run, everything became mundane. All that mattered to Scully was Mulder, and all that mattered to Mulder was Scully. They didn't worry too much and if not for the knowledge they possessed they might have been classified as positively carefree. They hadn't gotten married and felt no real need to, but they'd both agreed that it'd be nice to get married a year before the invasion, so they'd know what it felt like. They'd also agreed on a quickie Vegas wedding; their old life was gone and in their new life they were alone, save for the other.

This simple, quiet, unobtrusive life was picture-perfect; they occasionally grew nostalgic and spoke fondly often of their old life, but never did they regret their decisions.

Except for the nights when Scully lay awake, looking at the moon, dreaming of a young boy with red-gold hair and bright blue eyes.

**Oxygen- Colbie Calliat**

She'd found in him, the odd conspiracy theorist, her soulmate. Afraid of falling, of the ones they loved betraying them, or worse, leaving them. He was badly scarred by his childhood and she was, too, though differently, as hers had been relatively plain. Looking back on those content years spent in the care of her parents she realized her troubles had been few, but that trouble had always lurked beneath the surface, ready to strike when she was unguarded. Mulder had taught her to challenge that, to live, not in the shadow of what she could have, perhaps should have, been and how to live in the moment. The moment she stepped into that office her life changed forever, for better or for worse, even if she couldn't admit it to herself until years later.

It just showed how these things turned out in the end.

**Imaginary- Evanescence**

Sometimes when Monica became too overwhelmed with her life, with the world, she'd close her eyes and return to her childhood in Mexico. It had been simple, even peaceful then, growing up. She had been born March 12, 1960, in Austin, Texas. Her mother was eighteen and died in childbirth. No one cared, except for her older sister, Sabrina Reyes, who was then twenty-four and immediately adopted Monica. She was named for her mother, and for the American dream her mother had always yearned for. Her mother's name had been Bianca, so she was Monica Bianca Reyes.

When things got bad, she went to home, to Mexico, until John showed up and everything was okay again.

**Tainted Love- Soft Cell**

Diana's love for him was twisted, sickening. She was a thorn; how had he once loved this woman? How had she once been his wife? She was manipulative, horrible, conniving, a liar, a thief, a cheat, and she'd endangered him time and time again.

But in the end, he had to thank her for his life. Because in the end, she had sacrificed herself for him. And while it made him ill to think of owing her anything, it was the truth, and he had always strived for the truth, had he not?

She had given Scully the way to get him out, knowing she would most likely be killed for her betrayal. But it was more than that; if Diana had lived, Diana was giving Mulder to Scully with that key. She was sick and tired of the game. It was one thing when it was just him she had to fool, but she saw Scully, saw how Scully felt about him, and found it maddening, sickening. Until she saw the tears in her eyes knowing that Mulder might be dead and she had finally did what she needed. She was depriving Scully of what was truly hers all along. And so by handing over that key, by betraying what she had worked so hard for, by dying, she had relinquished Mulder to Scully. In the end, it was all for the best.

Sometimes now he'd look up into the sky when they were in a hotel after driving for a long while and think of Diana, think of all she'd done and all she'd wanted, and Scully would wake and hold onto him, and neither would speak. They both sort of knew, when this happened, that he was thinking of Diana and going to that dark place in his mind.

Always Scully was there. Unlike many women, who would've been upset with their lovers thinking of another, she understood and kindly comforted him, soothed him. That was all he really needed, in the end.

**Hand in my Pocket- Alanis Morissette**

There were so many uncertainties in Monica's life that she sometimes did not know where the lies began and the truth ended, and vice versa. Something seemed one way but was really the other way. It had been that way for a long while now. It had been six years; the first two spent on the run, and they'd eventually surrendered. She had her children, Katherine and Walter, or Kay and Wallie, as she called them affectionately. But looking at them she was saddened by the burden they carried, whether they knew it or not. In four years, if those cruel men weren't lying, they would die. They would all die. Sometime in 2004 Mulder, Scully, Reyes, Doggett, and Skinner had made a pact that they would meet up that October before the invasion, in a small series of caverns in the Arizona mountains that contained a lot of magnetite. They would be safe, but for how long? They had told no one else of their plan, aside from Gibson, of course. She looked at Kay; she was three, born in January of 2005; she'd be almost 8 when the invasion happened. And Wallie, born in October 2006, he'd just barely be 6!

But for all the uncertainties, there was one constant. John. Her husband of five years now. When he came home, all of that faded away. Even when she found out she was again pregnant, May of 2008. She was due December of that year. Gibson lived with them, as her nephew. It would be a full house.

She sighed and continued waiting for John to get home.

**Angels Land- Jill Hennessy**

His parents were George and Hanna van de Kamp. George was forty-four and Hanna was forty. He was William John van de Kamp, aged seven. He had bright blue eyes and red-gold hair. He knew he wasn't their real child; he was adopted. A year after he had been adopted, his little adoptive sister, Jeannie, was born. He felt relatively happy, but would it last? Sometimes he lay awake at night and saw a woman with bright blue eyes and red-gold hair, a sad expression on her face, and knew strongly that it was his mother. Rarely, though occasionally, he saw a man with hazel eyes and chocolate brown hair, his father. One of his fondest memories was of his mother showing him a picture of his father. He was little then.

He wondered what happened to them. He knew they loved him. He couldn't quite explain it. William just _knew_, without a doubt, how hard it had been for his parents, giving him up, and that they had done it to protect him because they could no longer do so themselves. George and Hanna and Jeannie were all kind to him; however, it just wasn't the same.

Some nights he lay awake and wondered about his mother, about his father, about their story.

**4 Small Hands- Jill Hennessy**

Scully had often dreamed of her adulthood as a child. She had wanted to be a doctor, wanted to marry a man who adored her, have a couple of pretty children.

Instead she gave up doctoring and taught classes at the FBI Training Academy. Instead she pissed off a superior and ended up in the x-files unit. Instead of marrying a man who adored her she became a fugitive with him and they ran all over the place. Instead of having a couple of children, she was declared barren, had a daughter she knew for a few days before she died, had a son she had given up when he was eight months old, and later found out she wasn't barren, that she had been lied to for years. And in the end, that made her laugh; it was so typical that all this had happened. Now she was a doctor, and unofficially she was engaged to the man of her dreams, though they were waiting three more years, and they practiced birth control religiously because they didn't want a child to go through hell with them. They'd find William, their true child, eventually and hide with him and the others. Others like them.

Others who had dreams but ended up differently.

**Everybody's Fool- Evanescence**

Diana knew that in the end, she did what was right. But how had she fallen so low? How had she felt for Scully, her rival? She was a master liar, manipulative, and perfect in all respects.

So as she lay dying, she squeezed her eyes shut and prayed for it to be over soon. She prayed that somehow, some way, Mulder and Scully could stop the impending invasion.

What she didn't pray for was what truly happened.

**Saving Me- Nickelback**

She found him, underneath the faint glow of the moon and the stars, outside in the desert. They were somewhere in Mexico but they weren't quite sure where. He was gazing up mournfully and Scully stood beside him, not daring to say anything.

"Why is it, Scully," he turned, finally, "Why is it that we're the ones running? We should be preparing..."

"Mulder," she murmured, softly, lovingly, "Look at those stars and tell me that there's not a savior somewhere out there. Even if... even if we cannot save ourselves, there just has to be someone willing to save us. There just has to be, Mulder.

"They think... they think it's our son, Dana," he shuddered.

"I know, Mulder," she murmured, "And maybe he is. Maybe he really will save us all. All I know is that we shouldn't worry. We have another five years, Mulder. Let's live in the moment and enjoy today, okay?"

He nodded and whispered, "Okay."

She smiled faintly and led them back into the motel room. Somehow they'd be okay.

**Broken- Seether & Amy Lee**

He hated running, hated missing her like this. Hated missing out on his son. She emailed him occasionally. This week's email made him cry.

_ Dear Mulder,_

_ I can't talk long. William's being fussy and I'm late for an ass-chewing at the Hoover Building. Some things never change, do they, now? Anyways, I just wanted to say that William is crawling. He started last night but I couldn't get to the cafe until just now. I cried when he crawled._

_ I miss you so much and I wish you could be here for William, and for me._

_ Love always,_

_ Dana_

He had cried, mourning the loss of his son and his lover.


End file.
